


Mutant!

by chunk_of_delight



Category: New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Branding, Burns, For now it's just a one-shot, Hopes Peak AU, How Do I Tag, I may expand on this, Kokichi is in quite a bad situation, Kokichi wears a mask, M/M, Mutant Powers, Mutant!Kokichi, Mutant!Shuichi, No killing game, Not Beta Read, Not Canon Compliant, Oma Kokichi Needs a Hug, Sad Oma Kokichi, Scars, Vomiting, Whoo boy this looks pretty bad, inspired by x-men, its sad, mutant AU, not super shippy, then it gets better
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-11 01:22:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28376895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chunk_of_delight/pseuds/chunk_of_delight
Summary: Shuichi lives in a world where you can be killed or imprisoned for being a mutant. Luckily for him, his powers can't harm others. Someone else in his class isn't as fortunate.
Relationships: Oma Kokichi/Saihara Shuichi
Comments: 3
Kudos: 103





	Mutant!

There was no bigger mystery in his class than Kokichi. The boy was an enigma, he pulled people in only to push them away once they got too close.

There was a lot more to him than Shuichi ever thought he’d know. 

He lived in a society where a small percentage of the population had strange powers, given to them by an awakened mutant gene. Those people were considered serious threats, and if they were found, they were either contained or killed. 

If you were to be discovered as a mutant, your entire life would be taken away from you. Luckily for Shuichi, his power wasn’t one that was glaringly obvious. 

It was pure luck that a boy born into a line of well-respected detectives would end up being a literal walking lie detector.

That was why Kokichi was so interesting to him. The boy told lie after lie after lie, and the little sense that told Shuichi what was true or not always acted up whenever he engaged in a conversation with Kokichi.

Let’s talk a little bit about Kokichi.

He always wore a white mask. It looked like it was plastic, and it had these strange childish clown features doodled on it. Kokcihi also wore some sort of stylized straightjacket, one that featured multicolored buttons, and restraint straps. He had a black and white checkered scarf tied around his neck, and he often fidgeted with it, picking at the frayed ends with his gloved hands. Oh, right. He also had a thin pair of white costume gloves that he never went without.

Kokichi always used to spew garbage about his family. Some related to how he killed his whole family to take over the mafia they ran. Some talked about how his family took him to Disneyland over spring break. Others went on about how they left him, neglected, in the house without food or water for a whole weekend. Shuichi’s lie detector went off the rails whenever he went on about his family.

Until one day, when he told a strange lie when asked about what his family was really like.

“Awwwwe! How mean of you, Rantaro! You know I don’t have a family!” He said, fake tears pooling in his eyes and dripping out from under his mask. “This is the only place I can escape from that awful orphanage… and you’re all bullying me for it! Waaaaaaaaah!”

The lie detector didn’t go off. Shuichi wondered if his powers suddenly stopped working.

“But, that’s a lie!” The detector finally went off as Kokichi tucked his hands behind his head, and raised up his elbows. “Everyone knows how adored I am back at home!”

***

Sometimes Shuichi wondered how Kokichi got his ultimate talent. How does one even go about earning the title of “ultimate supreme leader?”

It's not like he’d never asked Kokichi. The responses he always got were all lies. He talked about secret organisations, after-school clubs, and even mafias! But not once did he actually ever tell the truth. 

Why couldn’t Kokichi just tell the truth?

***

The teacher was late to class today. Kaito was as well.

Shuichi asked if anyone knew what happened.

“Like hell if I’d know!” Shuichi knew that was a lie. Kokichi’s eyes crinkled under his mask, it seemed like he was grinning. He barked out a laugh and continued talking. “That idiot just probably went and did something stupid!”

The detector did not go off at that.

Shuichi remembered Kokichi coming in at least ten minutes later than he usually did.

What the hell happened?

The class waited for their teacher to return, and some of the students left their desks to go chat with their friends. This continued for about ten more minutes before the teacher slammed the classroom door open and sprinted to her desk.

“Something happened to Kaito,” she said, before awkwardly looking out at her students. “We think he was attacked by a hostile mutant. The school is about to go on lockdown until they find who did it.”

Just as the teacher finished speaking, the intercom speakers relayed a message stating that teachers were to lock their classroom doors and windows, and hide all of their students.

Everyone in the class was crammed into the far corner of the room they were locked in. They were all pressed up against each other, and some people looked as if they were about to die.

Kokichi seemed extremely uncomfortable, almost as if he didn’t want anyone to touch him. The supreme leader kept on pulling his sleeves down over his wrists and his scarf up over his neck.

Strange.

***

They ended up not being able to find the culprit, and Kaito Momota was brought to the hospital. Apparently they had a room in the hospital set aside for people who were in the same state as the ultimate astronaut.

The class went to visit him instead of going to class one morning. Shuichi noticed that Kokichi seemed to become more hesitant in his actions the closer they got to their destination.

He decided to keep an eye on the boy for a while.

There were twenty people in there, including Kaito. Quite a few of them were teenagers, and the rest seemed to be adults. They were completely unresponsive, and seemed to not want to listen to anybody.

While everyone was crowding Kaito’s hospital bed, Shuichi looked over at Kokichi. The smaller boy was staring at a patient near the door to the room. From what Shuichi could see on the clipboard at the base of their bed… their last name was Ouma.

Just like Kokichi.

The bed next to theirs was occupied by another Ouma, this one was male instead of female. Suddenly, Shuichi came to a realization. They must be Kokichi’s parents.

“Do any of you know what happened to any of these people?” Shuichi asked one of the doctors that was accompanying them in the hospital room. “Are their cases related at all?”

“No. Not that any of us know of.” The doctor said.

Lie, Shuichi thought.

“They all just have very similar symptoms, so we figured we’d treat them together.”

Uh huh. 

There was most definitely something going on here.

***

Shuichi hadn’t meant to see it. He wasn't even supposed to be at school at that time. He had just lost his car keys, and had searched through the whole classroom before he found them on the floor behind the garbage can by the door.

As he was walking back to the student parking lot, he passed the small park behind the school. There were two figures standing by the back entrance of the school.

“I know you had something to do with it! Don’t play stupid, you lying brat!” Shuichi recognized the build and the voice of the person who he was first able to hear. It was Maki Harukawa. Kaito’s unofficial girlfriend.

“And I’m telling you that you’re crazy! Just let me go home!” Kokichi was the person that was being berated by Maki.

“Then why were your parents both in the hospital room in the same condition as Kaito?” Shuichi thought he’d been the only one to pick up on that detail. “Do you think I don’t remember what they look like? Or your old friends from before you suddenly disappeared all those years ago? You knew a lot of people that were in those hospital beds. And you’re going to tell me what you did to all of them.”

Shuichi ducked behind a tree and continued to watch the fight, being sure that the two of them wouldn’t notice him.

“Stop fidgeting with your damn hands! Look at me and TELL ME WHAT YOU DID!” Maki screamed at Kokichi, her hands darting forward and removing Kokichi’s gloves. 

“Give those back!” Kokichi’s voice was filled with paranoia, and was on the verge of hysteria.

“Then tell me what you did! Tell me what you did or I’m calling the police!” Shuichi watched as Maki grabbed Kokichi’s hands, as if she were about to pin him to the brick wall behind him. 

Maki’s arms went limp, and the ultimate assassin took a step back.

“What would you like, Lord Ouma?”

***

Shuichi really didn’t know what to think. He’d seen Kokichi grab his gloves back before running away from the school.

The detective had silently followed the supreme leader back to a building labeled “Great Opportunities Orphanage.”

Kokichi stepped up to the building before knocking and entering once the doors were opened.

What the fuck.

***

They cancelled school for the next day, and the area around the building was now to be considered a high-risk area for a dangerous mutant.

Kokichi was a mutant. 

Just like Shuichi.

Except he wasn’t like Shuichi at all.

Once Shuichi had actually gotten back to the apartment he shared with his uncle, he decided to look up the orphanage Kokichi was staying at.

It took hours of searching before he found a thread on tumblr about it, saying that the government was hiding, abusing, and experimenting on mutants there.

Shuichi closed his computer before he could read any more.

What the fuck was going on with Kokichi?

***

Where was Kokichi?

He didn’t show up to classes once the school opened up again. Did Shuichi really expect him to?

Fuck.

Fuck, fuck, fuck!

***

Shuichi drove to the orphanage. He parked his car in a spot, and locked it. He stepped up to the entrance.

Just as he was about to place his hand on the doorknob, he heard a voice call out from behind him.

“Shumai? What in Atua’s name are you doing here?” Shuichi whipped his head around to stare at the small leader, before running up to him. He stopped once he was a comfortable distance from the purple haired boy, and turned his concerned eyes to Kokichi.

Shuichi’s gaze went to Kokichi’s left wrist, where there were angry red marks peeking out. His breath caught in his throat.

“Kokichi… are you okay?” Shuichi didn’t extend a hand, or make any movement towards the other boy.

Did physical contact trigger his ability?

“Of course I am, Shuu! Why wouldn’t I be?”

***

Thankfully, Kokichi started showing up at school once again. 

On the flip side, it was athletics week at school. Everyone had to compete in sports and outdoor activities throughout five days.

They had to wear an athletics uniform, which consisted of a brown hope’s peak t-shirt and black sport shorts. 

This was the time of the year that Shuichi dreaded the most. At least Kokichi was back.

Shuichi liked to get to school super early, so as he headed down to the changing rooms, he didn’t expect to run into any other students.

“I understand your situation, but unfortunately, school rules are school rules. You can’t participate without the uniform, and without the participation, you fail P.E. for the year,” their gym teacher was explaining something to a student in his office. 

Shuichi’s curiosity got the better of him, and so he quietly crept to the entrance of the office to see what was going on.

“You want me to participate… when I look like this in your goddamn uniform?”

“Language.”

***

Shuichi felt like he was going to throw up when he peeked around the corner. Kokichi stood in the gym teacher’s office, wearing the brown t-shirt and the black sport shorts. 

His arms, legs and neck were all bare, and it was the first time Shuichi had ever seen them in all of their horrifying glory.

His limbs were covered in cuts, burns, brands, and bruises.

Shuichi wasn’t as quiet as he liked to think he was.

Kokichi and the gym teacher both turned to look at the boy standing at the entrance to the office.

Shuichi saw Kokichi’s face without the mask as well.

He could feel the bile rising in his throat.

***

Shuichi ran to the bathroom, where he ended up being sick for a bit. He decided to skip classes for today, gym grades be damned.

***

Shuichi debated on what he needed to do. He had skipped school that day, opting to go back to his apartment. 

Now he sat atop his bed, trying to get his mind off of it.

It being Kokichi’s face.

It was really beautiful.

If you ignored the scars.

A large burn bubbled over his left cheek, and it worked it's way up and over most of his nose. Smaller cigarette burns littered his other cheek and his chin.

But that wasn’t even the worst part.

No. The worst part was the fact that the word “MUTANT” had been branded in big bold letters across his forehead. His bangs could only manage to hide so little of it.

***

Shuichi opted to grab his keys and drive. He parked and locked his car. He stepped up to the door. He didn’t knock. He just turned around.

“I figured you’d be here,” Shuichi said, slowly walking back towards him.

“I should go.”

Shuichi read that as a lie. He didn’t want to go.

“No! I mean- please don’t go.” Shuichi had to remind himself not to move towards him. He didn’t need to make things worse. “I just want to talk.”

“That's what they always say, Shuichi.”

That wasn't a lie.

Plus, he didn’t even get a nickname.

“Please? I don’t want to turn you in or anything like that.” the detective mumbled, tilting his head a little. “If that’s what you’re worried about.”

“Hm.”

“I just- I really need to know if you’re okay.” Shuichi debated for a moment before continuing. “I should also tell you something.”

“Alright.”

“I saw you and Maki talking after school that one day. The night that she ended up in the hospital.”

Kokichi took a step back.

“You’ve known for that long? You’ve known for that fucking long, Shuichi?” Kokichi started yelling at him, as if he were mad he hadn’t been reported. “You put yourself in fucking danger! How did you know I wasn’t going to hurt you next?”

“You didn't seem to want to… do that to Maki. Or Kaito. Or… your parents,” Shuichi pulled his hat down over his eyes a little bit. “And… it’s not like I’d be able to get out of being tested if I brought you in.”

“What?”

“You haven’t heard? They claim to have a new way to test for the mutant gene in someone’s DNA. They’ve been trying to spread it. The officials around here have decided that they’d have to test people before they let them accuse others.” Shuichi took a very small step towards Kokichi.

“Of course I already know what those damn tests are. They use them on us all the time. So… You’re trying to tell me that you couldn’t turn me in… because you’d be tested?” Kokichi looked at Shuichi pointedly through his mask’s eyeholes. “Are you a mutant too, Shuichi?”

“Maybe.” Yes! Yes, of course he is!

“Then you need to get the fuck out of here right now! They’ve been testing people on the streets around here a lot recently.” Kokichi made a motion as if he were trying to shoo Shuichi away.

“Alright, I’ll leave.” Shuichi pulled his car keys from his pocket. “On one condition.”

“Huh?”

“You’re coming with me.” Shuichi beckoned for Kokichi to walk with him to his car.

“I’m doing what now?” Kokichi thought he must’ve heard the detective wrong.

“I’m kidnapping you, so hurry up and get in my car!”

***

It took about seven minutes of bickering and several threats of calling the police before Kokichi ended up in Shuichi’s car. They hit the road as soon as they buckled in.

Shuichi had a nice car. It was clean, new, and spacious. The only issue was the faulty heating and cooling system. And yet the liar chose to press himself as far up against his window as he could.

“You do know that there’s enough room for you to sit comfortably, right?” Shuichi said, glancing over at Kokichi for a few seconds before looking at the road again. “As long as you’re not trying to… do whatever to me I’m sure we’ll be fine.”

“It doesn’t matter if I’m trying to or not,” the supreme leader mumbled, moving a little bit away from the door. “It happens when I get scared. I can’t exactly turn it off.”

“Why are you scared?”

“I just got fucking kidnapped by someone who knows how much of a monster I am. It’s not quite a stress-free environment for me.” Kokichi turned to look out the window.

“...Sorry,” was all Shuichi could manage to say in response.

They suffered in uncomfortable silence for a little while. The car started to grow hot. It was quite warm out, and as previously stated, the air conditioning was pretty much shot.

Shuichi was beginning to feel sweaty and hot, and he was only wearing a t-shirt and khaki shorts! He checked the heat that was displayed on the car’s dashboard.

102 fucking degrees.

One glance at Kokichi was all he needed to see before he realized how hot the boy must be. Long sleeves, full-length pants, the scarf, the mask, the gloves…

Goddamnit.

Shuichi pulled the car over into a parking lot for an abandoned-looking gas station. He unbuckled and reached into the backseat, pulling out a duffel bag. He sat himself back down, and rummaged through the bag.

He pulled out a t-shirt, shorts, and a smaller bag.

“Go and change into this.”

“What the fuck? No!” Kokichi said, pressing himself against the car door again. “I’m not even that warm right now, Shumai.”

That was most definitely a lie.

“I can tell that you’re overheating right now, Kokichi, and I swear to god if you don’t put this on, I will reach over there and do it myself, your powers be damned.”

***

Kokichi sat back down in the car, wearing a shirt for a show he’d never watched before, and black jean shorts. They were all too big for him, and hung off his thin frame.

Shuichi had even managed to convince him to take off his mask. The sweat dripping down his face was now visible, and Kokichi couldn’t lie about not being hot now.

The shorter boy refused to look at Shuichi, and he didn’t respond whenever the detective would ask him something.

Shuichi kicked the car back into gear and left the gas station.

***

He managed not to stare at the many scars and injuries littering the frail body of his partner. He did sneak a few glances when Kokichi had fallen asleep for a little while.

You know what?

His face was still really beautiful, even with all of those scars.

***

Kokichi admitted to being hungry at around 8:00 pm. Shuichi said they’d go and pick up some burgers and fries.

Kokichi made a second confession, this one being that he couldn’t remember the last time he’d eaten a burger, and that he couldn't remember what fries tasted like.

The liar could barely stomach half of a kid’s burger and a couple small fries before he claimed to be too full.

Shuichi felt awful for downing a full burger and a large order of fries in front of him.

***

By sundown, they were about an hour away from their destination. Shuichi decided to ask a question that had been eating away at him for a while.

“Kokichi? What is it exactly?” God, he sounded so awkward. “Like… what do you do to people?”

“You first.”

Of course. 

“I, uh, I can tell when people lie,” Shuichi said, peeling his eyes off the road for just a second to look over at his companion.

“Is… is that a lie?”

“No. But I wish it was.” Shuichi flipped on his turn signal and made a left .

***

“Have you ever wondered why they call me the ultimate supreme leader?” Kokichi said suddenly, after about twenty minutes of silence. “It's because I’m good at using and manipulating people. At least that’s what my caretakers told the Hope’s Peak scouts. It’s really because I take away a person's free will when we make skin to skin contact.”

He shut up for another couple minutes.

“They’re unable to have any independent thoughts, they can't move or speak, or think, unless I give them a command.”

“Oh.” Shuichi couldn’t say that he’d expected something like this.

“Ever since I’ve figured it out, I haven’t ever purposely used it. If it does happen, I don’t make them do anything. I could never bring myself to do something like that on purpose. If you’re wondering about Kaito, he ripped my mask off and then punched me in the face. It wasn’t my fault I got scared.”

“So it only happens when you’re scared?” Shuichi asked, pulling into a small subdivision.

“Basically. I don’t know how to undo it.” Kokichi looked over at Shuichi with sadness in his eyes. “I know you know I’m not lying. What’s the point of lying to you anymore?”

Shuichi pulled into the driveway of a small grey ranch.

“Get out, we’re here.”

***

Kokichi looked at Shuichi with confusion. 

“Where is this?” the purple haired boy flinched away from his reflection in the mirror by the door. Shuichi immediately grabbed it and flipped it over. 

“My parent’s old house. It’s in my uncle’s name now, but he lets me use it anytime I want. He won’t mind us being here for a while.” Shuichi set the duffel bag he had with him down on the chair by the door. “We’re far enough away from the school and the city. They won’t find us here.”

***

“You’re safe here.”

“Thank you, Shumai.”

**Author's Note:**

> Kokichi's powers were based off Rogue from the X-Men movies.
> 
> I'm sorry.


End file.
